Blue-White Game Preview '11: Secondary & Special Teams

This post is the final part of our week-long series previewing the major position groups heading into the Blue-White scrimmage this Saturday in Beaver Stadium.

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Part 5: Secondary & Special Teams

"Bend but don't suck." Is that how the saying goes?

Penn State's defense has been particularly good at being particularly simple the last, oh, half-century. Playing 8-10 yards off the receivers; blitzing a safety or corner every once in a never. It's all part of keeping the opposing offense on the field as long as possible, without actually surrendering any points in the process. Sounds crazy, I know.

But what Tom Bradley does with the Nittany Lions' pass defense has been actually very impressive. Penn State has been a regular in the top pass defense rankings the last 10 years, with several top-10 appearances along the way. Generally speaking, it's not usually the defensive secondary's fault exclusively when an opposing quarterback torches Penn State for 400 yards.

There have been some really great defensive backs who have come through Happy Valley. Alan Zamaitis, Mark Robinson, David Macklin, Darren Perry, Michael Zordich, Neal Smith, Pete Harris, Kim Herring, to name a few of the best. That story isn't over, though, and it may continue strongly this season. But it all depends on things like injuries, and whether or not certain players with the ability to be great, rise up and meet that potential.

Penn State returns 52 starts from the 2010 defensive backfield. Among those returning starts are six players who started a game last season. But this unit is coming back for 2011 with fewer "issues," like injuries and suspensions. Though the injuries are rampant for this weekend--the entire projected starting secondary will miss the game--they likely will not affect the regular season.

But that doesn't mean there isn't much to look forward to seeing tomorrow on the field. Younger guys, particularly those called into action last season, will have an opportunity to run with the first team defense in a game-like situation in front of a larger crowd than any during the 15 previous practices this spring.

More below the break.

Review: Penn State 33, Minnesota 21

Silas Redd put on a show for Penn State fans, piling up
73 yards for the Nittany Lions against Minnesota.
(AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

Rah Rah!!! The Nittany Lions won a Big Ten game!

Ok, enough of that. It wasn't pretty, but it was convincing in the end. Reeling from two embarrassing performances, Penn State went on the road and did what it had to do. Minnesota may be the worst team in the conference this season. It doesn't matter. Wins are wins, and Penn State sure needs a few more before the season is done.

The defense bent plenty, but never broke enough to lose the game. In fact, it was a few big defensive stops, efficient passing, a strong running game [gasp!] in the second half, and special teams that propelled Penn State to the victory in Minneapolis. Now, I may be crazy here, but doesn't that sound an awful lot like the Penn State teams of old?

Here the roundup from Saturday.

Joe Paterno Press Conference Recap: Youngstown State

Chaz Powell could play offense
or defense this Saturday, depending on
some key injuries in the Penn State secondary.

Here's the long and short of what happened today at Joe Paterno's first game week press conference. The season opener against Youngstown State is four days away (!), and the quarterback situation isn't getting any better. But more on that in a minute.

Quick hits:

• Being a team captain is a lot like being an officer on Omaha Beach. Yikes.
  
• Andrew Szczerba's back isn't any better, and might not play for a few weeks. (I guess injury information isn't secret after all)
• Chaz Powell is moving back to offense. This is due to an unusually high number of injuries at the wide receiver position--Curtis Drake's broken leg, and Christian Kuntz's knee injury this past weekend. And with Szczerba's absence, they may take some time working in a sufficient gameplan for TE Garry Gilliam, meaning more WR sets.
• Linebacker will be a strength of the team, despite what the pundits are saying. Mike Mauti is fine.
• Stephfon Morris might be out, but it depends on how his neck injury heals. Powell can be moved back to defense if Morris can't go.
• Drew Astorino is doing alright, and should go.
• The offensive line is getting better. Joe and the staff are "very encouraged," which means they might actually be good. Joe doesn't praise units that aren't doing remarkably well. If they weren't, the wouldn't remark on them, right?
  
• Joe Paterno was asked about the quarterbacks, a lot. The gist of it all? Everything is fine, but unknown.
• Paul Jones was redshirted because of academics. Joe's worried about a few players, but wouldn't name them, and asked the guys not to ask about them.
• Both quarterbacks, Newsome and Bolden, can play. But they're obviously young.
• Hopefully a starter will be named tomorrow night.
  

So how many questions did Joe get about the quarterbacks? This many...

Injury Update: Stankiewitch in for Klopacz

True freshman TE Garry Gilliam has been running
with the first team offense this week,
due to Andrew Sczcerba's nagging
shoulder and back problems.

There are probably way more injuries than one can keep track of, most of which are minor dings that sideline a player for a day or two... or three. Since we're almost exactly two weeks away from Penn State's opening kickoff (14 days from now, you'll be watching the first quarter!), I thought it would be good to do some catching up with the injuries on the team, or at least the injuries I could find in the jumble that is preseason football coverage.

C Doug Klopacz missed two days (Thursday and Friday?) with an ankle injury. In his place, backup LG Matt Stankiewitch has been taking reps on the first team offense. I would have thought Ty Howle would have done that, but looks like Stank is the more experienced guy. Plus, there were reports that Stank will stay as Klopacz's backup this season anyway.

FB Mike Zordich sustained a minor knee injury that kept him out of Friday's practice. He's expected to miss a few days into next week. Zordich was apparently lighting people up in practice this month.

TE Andrew Sczcerba has been out with nagging back and shoulder problems, with backup Garry Gilliam running with the first team. Gilliam is a fantastic young player, so there is little dropoff here.

S Drew Astorino is still hampered by that nagging shoulder injury. It's not really expected to force him to miss game time, but keep an eye on this one. Backups Andrew Dailey and Stephen Obeng-Agyapong are very good, if not just as good as Astorino (that's completely my own opinion, FYI), so this is not a major concern.

CB Derrick Thomas banged up his shoulder pretty bad, and was out most of this week. But he should be back for today's scrimmage.

CBs Stephon Morris and D'Anton Lynn returned to practice this week, after Morris was recouping from a nasty stinger, while Lynn had some kind of ankle problem.

DT Jordan Hill, who saw playing time as a true frosh last season, had a concussion earlier this month, but has returned to his spot at nose tackle behind Ollie Ogbu.

LBs Khairi Fortt and Bani Gbadyu both had concussions this month. Both are doing fine, but of course you have to watch these things.

Penn State holds a scrimmage today at 2:30 in Beaver Stadium. I'll have a short update tonight, hopefully with some more good news on the injury front.

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Linkbacker U likes the ground game

We had a last minute issue, so this is going to be a straight link dump post today.

Quick Recruiting Update. Hours after I wrote that Cyrus Kouandjio was still good with Penn State, he narrowed his list to 11 schools. The Nittany Lions didn't make the cut, because they were "too strict."

Curtis Dukes blasted Stephon Morris in practice yesterday, sending the sophomore cornerback to the hospital for a check. Morris is apparently fine, but shaken up. This Penn State running game could be very fun to watch the next few seasons.

More on Curtis Drake from Nittany Whiteout. An expected analysis, but still worth a look see.

ESPN Power Rankings are out. Penn State is about where you'd expect.

The Rivalry, Esq. is now Off Tackle Empire. Good name change, if you ask me. But still the same great blog.

Brandon Wegher isn't practicing with Iowa. This could be a good thing for everyone not the Hawkeyes.

Four major programs are facing NCAA issues. UNC is a team sinking fast, after everyone was looking at them as a not-so-darkhorse BCS team.

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Thursday Quesiton: 2010 Surprise Breakout Defensive Player

Sophomore cornerback Stephon Morris (12) is just one of our picks for 2010's surprise breakout players.

By the time this month is over, we will be counting down the hours, not days, until kickoff. So to keep your excitement going, we continue with our Thursday Question series, with this week's edition: What's your surprise breakout defensive player for 2010?

Galen

Well it’s tough to pick a “breakout” player on defense unless you are going to go out on a limb and come up with a reason why Stephen Obeng-Agyapong takes over the starting role at safety and becomes a wide receiver-maiming terror or something like that. We all know the linebackers are talented but inexperienced, it’s only a matter of time until they get comfortable and start making plays. I’ll go with Stephon Morris. We already know he’s good, he started as a true freshman and played in all 13 games but I think he’ll greatly improve and people outside Nittany Nation will know his name by the end of the season. I was so impressed at not only how well he could cover as a true frosh but how sure he tackled, that’s a combination that great corners have. Now he’s had a year in the system, got plenty of game experience and has been through and entire offseason workout, he should be quicker and stronger. Teams will throw in his direction because he doesn’t have the name recognition yet, but by the end of the season that will change.

Nick

It's tough to come up with a "surprise" breakout defensive player, because we're already so familiar with the cast. If one were to look at preseason magazines, it'd likely be Mauti or Gerald Hodges, but like I said they're somewhat known quantities to us so I'm going to say whatever freshman manages to get into the secondary rotation, which at this point I'll tab Alex Kenney. It's still unknown if he'll play offense or defense and they're just starting getting started so things are far from sorted out, but while there's alot of depth at WR, that's not the case on the other side of the ball. He's got the size to be a disruptive playmaker and the speed to make up for the missteps he's bound to make early on as he gets adjusted to the college game. I like his chances to make an impact by season's end, then again he could redshirt and be out of the mix completely.

Mike

The trick for this week's question is that "surprise" element. So I'll have to be careful not to pick some player that we already know well, or has had great play on the field, but not enough because he was waiting behind some other star or something like that. Corner Stephon Morris was going to be my initial pick, but he did play a lot last year, and Penn State's secondary hasn't had too many big-time impact/breakout players the last few years. That's not a slight on Morris. He's going to be a fantastic corner, probably one of the best in the conference. But is that a real surprise?

For this answer, I'll head forward to the front line. Defensive tackle Jordan Hill saw some decent playing time in 2009, but was overshaddowed by the usual performers along the D-line. Defensive end Sean Stanley sort of made his "surprise" mark last season, so I'll keep him in my regular old breakout players list for 2010. But I'm not sure anyone wouldn't be a bit surprised if Hill keeps progressing the way he quietly did in 2009, to have a really, really good year in 2010. With Jared Odrick now in the NFL, and coach Larry Johnson, Sr.'s propensity to rotate linemen like nothin' else, I like Hill to impress in unexpected fashion next month.

Ryan

If asked this question at the end of last season, I definitely would have gone with Eric Lattimore. His size and quickness caught my attention the first time I saw him play. But, the Blue White game has come and gone and Lattimore is no longer "under the radar." So, I'm going with Mike Mauti. I know, I know, how can a top recruit of Mauti's stature be considered a surprise. But they seem to be babying him right now in terms of giving him the recognition and placement on the starting unit. I fully expect Mauti to be in the first team before too long, and expect him to be an absolute BEAST for the Lions.

Tim

For me, this is a rather tough one to pick. I see three viable candidates in my mind: Sean Stanley, Stephon Morris, and Michael Mauti. Stanley showcased his talents in front of the country for the first time last year at Illinois when he forced a Juice Williams fumble which PSU turned into the game-sealing TD drive. He's a little buried on the depth chart right now but considering how injury-prone Eric Latimore is, the possibility that he may eventually land a starting position halfway through the year is not so far-fetched.

Morris also made his presence felt last year at Illinois with his near coast-to-coast interception return and throughout the latter half of the season when his hard-hitting style and blazing speed made him a person whose end of the field opposing quarterbacks tried to avoid throwing towards. Morris is already written in permanent marker as a starting cornerback alongside DAnton Lynn for a reason: He's clearly a critical part of the secondary and will be counted upon to do even more this year.

Mauti would have been THE breakout player last year had he not torn his ACL. Right now, he's listed as a backup but expect him to see plenty of PT based upon what he showcased in 2008. His nearly killing former Michigan running back Sam McGuffie on that kickoff return is still the first thing I think about when I hear Mauti's name mentioned. Don't be surprised to see him earn a starting role, either if he lives up to the hype.

If forced at gunpoint, right now I'd have to go with Morris given the fact that he's unquestionably a starter. Expect the other two aforementioned players though to follow not too far behind...

Who is your surprise breakout defensive player for 2010?

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Blue-White Countdown 2010: Defensive Backs (updated 3/25)

Previous entries...
1: Special Teams

We continue our weekly countdown to the 2010 Blue-White Game. In today's edition, we'll take a look at a rather unsettled situation in the defensive backfield, as injuries and position shifting could shake things up by the time spring practice concludes on April 24 in Beaver Stadium. Over the next six weeks, I'll walk through all the major positions, trying to give the most reasoned explanation of who we could see come out big, and why.